PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Braun’s third home run had just about landed Tuesday when one predictable wail erupted from the left-field seats.

“Let’s go,” is how it went, “Flyers.”

It’s the normal cycle of the fan, always on the prowl for the next thing, the better thing, the more likely thing to yield satisfaction. The difference this time, though, was that it came less than eight full innings into Game No. 1 of the home baseball season.

Patience?

Some?

Any?

And weren’t the Phillies interesting if not productive in an early road trip, dragging a 3-3 record into their Citizens Bank Park debut?

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They were. And if they win Wednesday, they are back to .500. And it’s early. And they are scoring more often — in four separate innings Tuesday, even — than they had in their recent past. But the relative indifference of the assembled 45,061 throughout the opener, and then the way they all seemed to sprint out of the building after Braun’s home run provided what would be the 10-4 final score, was as telling as anything happening on the field.

This Phillies team, unlike most of the recent Phillies teams, is not going to enjoy the soothing comfort of a fan base still expecting that last 2008 parade float to come rolling by any day now. And they are definitely not going to enjoy any of that if they play as they did Tuesday, committing three errors, leaving 11 on base, and treating the Brewers to an all-you-can-hit buffet of flat, ordinary pitches.

They’d have been better off raining that one out too, which apparently they will do long before it starts drizzling.

“Not a good way to have an Opening Day, that’s for sure,” Ryne Sandberg said. “It was sloppy.”

Whether from the bright view of the front office or from the misty view of the upper deck, this Phillies season is guaranteed to be a race against time. Ruben Amaro Jr., with David Montgomery nodding in approval, took the chance that the Phillies’ nucleus was prepared for at least one last blast of greatness. That would be Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Ruiz and Chase Utley, who was home Tuesday with the flu. Kyle Kendrick, the home-opener starter, was in that mix, too.

That the roster has been fluffed around the edges in the past few years won’t matter, at least not to the perception. The perception is that the Phillies are in a slicing decline. So they either have to change that or face more snarling … and more quick stadium evacuations. Tuesday, they did anything but that.

Twice, Cody Asche double-clutched before making ordinary plays at third. Ben Revere, whose lack of an able throwing arm has him starting from behind in any Gold Glove discussion, dropped a Mark Reynolds fly ball at the center field fence in the seventh, allowing a run to score. Kendrick, after a strong outing in Texas, never made it into the sixth, surrendering six runs and nine hits, chipping in with an error. And the victim of Braun’s third homer, Brad Lincoln, was useless late as Sandberg tried to find something useful from a bullpen anything but deep in achievement.

“It’s disappointing,” Kendrick said. “It’s one game, but it’s the home opener. You want to win that one.”

The Phillies have a small chance to succeed this season. But they will not have much room for imprecision. They will be given a chance, at least by management. And there are indications that they will be improved over last season, when they lost 89 times. But fans generally demand one of two things: a reliable nucleus, or a new nucleus. Give them the same messy show too often, and they will just stand up and hope for a longer hockey season.

“Obviously, it’s still early,” Howard said. “That’s the game of baseball. Everybody makes mistakes. We’ve played well. Today, it just didn’t go our way. We made mistakes and they made us pay.”

The ballpark had been sold out, as per Opening Day tradition. The Phillies will have to make the fans want to fill it again.